Success Stories from Other Cities

Birmingham, Alabama

Birmingham hired a Chief Service Officer in 2012, sparking a citywide cultural shift towards impact volunteering and launching the first year of Love Your Block Birmingham, which exceeded all impact metrics and goals. Building on that early success, Mayor William A. Bell, Sr. pledged to incorporate Love Your Block into his citywide strategy to make Birmingham a healthier and safer city: the RISE Birmingham blight reduction program. RISE Birmingham has now become a movement across the city - communities undertaking revitalization projects showed decreased crime after one year, including 13% reduction in property theft and 16% reduction in auto thefts.

Flint, Michigan

Mayor Dayne Walling, an AmeriCorps alumnus, often serves alongside community volunteers to support Flint’s Love Your Block initiative. In the ﬁrst year of the program, volunteers removed 1.8 million pounds of waste, painted over 4,500 square feet of graﬃti, cleaned up 122 abandoned properties, and created 57 green spaces. In its second year, the city plans to revitalize 40 more blocks by getting rid of 2 million more tons of waste, removing 5,000 more square feet of graﬃti, creating 20 more green spaces, and cleaning up 200 more parcels of abandoned land.